China's political leaders are gathering in the capital Beijing today for their once-a-year major meeting. It's political theatre at its best, powerful politicians, ethnic minority delegates in traditional outfits and plenty of military generals. China's propaganda agencies work overtime to convince both a domestic and foreign audience of the parliament's legitimacy which is a tough sell.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has become embroiled in a political scandal over a kindergarten in Osaka, which teaches ultra-right-wing principles and aims to return Japan to a pre-war ethos of honour and sacrifice. The operator of the kindergarten has links to Shinzo Abe and his party and there's mounting evidence that the kindergarten has received a parcel of government land at 'mate's rates'.

The UK inquiry into child sexual abuse had its first public hearings in London this week, two and half years after it was first announced. The inquiry has not run as smoothly as the royal commission in Australia. It has been dogged by controversy, with three heads of the inquiry resigning before the public hearings even begun. This week the inquiry started by looking at historical child migration to countries like Australia.

This week the United Nations warned that 20 million people in the Middle East and Africa could face starvation in the next six months if aid is not immediately increased. But you could be forgiven for missing this story completely. It didn't make the big headlines, barely garnered debate and seemed to disappear as soon as it was announced. Yemen is listed as the worst-affected country facing potential famine. Middle East correspondent Sophie McNeill went to Yemen last year and talks of the confronting plight of starving children - and of how a crisis that could have been addressed a year ago has been ignored by the world.

Before his assignment in Washington DC, ABC correspondent Greg Jennett reported for years on Australian politics. Covering the first month of US President Trump's administration, he is struck by just how many American citizens are motivated and active - or just plain angry right now - as they express their political views. He contrasts his impressions with what he believes is an Australian malaise: political apathy.

From the deep, impenetrable walls of the Kremlin and the beauty of Red Square to the Bentley showroom and hipster restaurants, Moscow is a complex combination of surprises. Some things remain the same, but other parts of the city are rapidly changing. Europe correspondent Lisa Millar first visited Moscow in 2002 as a tourist. Returning 15 years for a series of reports to be aired on ABC TV and online over the next week, she reflects on the changes that have shaped the city - and on some things that might never change.

The Indonesian island of Bali has long been one of the most popular overseas holiday destination for Australians, with around 1 million tourists visiting every year. For a handful of tourists, however - like Byron Bay woman Sara Connor, who has been charged with the murder of a policeman - their stay on the island is much longer than anticipated. These visitors who end up in the Indonesian legal system face an unpredictable and frustrating experience, far removed from Western notions of justice, with courts asking questions - and expecting answers - that would seem bizarre in Australia.

You may not have heard, but Britain is currently in the midst of a crisis. The nation is suffering a shortage of green vegetables after floods and frost in Spain - the source of about 80 per cent of certain produce to the UK - led to slashed imports, empty supermarket shelves and a 300 per cent rise in the price of some varieties of lettuce.

NASA, America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration, recently held a competition in the hope that someone would devise a space suit with an in-built waste management system that could allow astronauts to stay in their suits for up to six days. The winner was Dr Thatcher Cardon, a family doctor, flight surgeon and Air Force colonel. His system utilises a fold-out bedpan and uses the vacuum of space to aid the process.

An American family has praised the generosity of a Papua New Guinea villager who returned a gold ring lost by a US serviceman during World War II. After being unearthed in a vegetable garden in a village in the east of the island nation, the high school graduation ring was eventually returned to a grateful family in New Jersey after a series of conversations, coincidences and detective work.